Essendon first year players - and a few interested second year players - today completed cooking lessons as part of their induction program.
The compulsory lessons - which were held by the Club for the first time - concluded today and were run by professional chef, John Casey, who also cooks for Victorian Institute of Sport athletes.
The cooking lessons were to ensure that all first year players can cook low fat, high fibre food at home and on a budget.
The players were also taken through pantry lists and shopping tips.
Eight first year players (and second year players in Leroy Jetta and Kyle Reimers) were taught 15 healthy, low fat, high fibre meals and will be expected to cook a meal for the coaching staff, team-mates and possibly even staff in the near future.
While many footy players may struggle to cook more than spaghetti bolognese, the Essendon boys can now throw together a decent pea and ham risotto; high fibre, low fat burgers; chicken stir-fry noodles and even bananna/pecan muffins.
Naturally, they were also taught how to do a good spaghetti bolognese but one with plenty of vegetables.
David Myers and Leroy Jetta were voted ""best in kitchen"" for their efforts while Tayte Pears - whose last name had people expecting plenty - failed to impress, with his soup leaving a lot to be desired.
Former Adelaide Crow (now Bendigo Bomber) Hayden Skipworth also took part in the session and is helping mentor a number of young players who are now living away from home.
Darcy Daniher was proud of his new found cooking ability but said it was unlikely to ever match his mums while Cale Hooker was talking up his onion dicing skills.
The 10 Essendon listed players taking part were: David Myers, Tayte Pears, Darcy Daniher, Cale Hooker, John Williams, Tom Bellchambers, Rhys Magin, Jarrod Atkinson, Leroy Jetta and Kyle Reimers.
